The Royal Ballet, Legacy, Linbury Theatre

The Royal Ballet's newest principal dancer, Joseph Sissens, drives Legacy alongside company director Kevin O'Hare, to celebrate the excellence of black and brown ballet artists. Himself of Anglo-Caribbean descent, something he pointed up over the past couple of seasons by having his hair braided, Joseph Sissens has been an increasingly vocal advocate of inclusion in an artistic field that has only slowly come to extend its welcome to all races and colours.

Sissens is a marvellous example of the peaks a non-white dancer can reach in ballet. His absolute command of ballet technique coupled with elegance and a deep understanding of the emotional demands of key repertoire roles make him a truly beautiful dancer – watching him in Ashton's Dance of the Blessed Spirits (pictured top) at the end of last season I was reminded of that quintessential English dancer, Anthony Dowell, and you can't bestow greater praise than that.

Still, as they say, one swallow doesn't make a summer. The Royal Ballet now has a number of non-white dancers as both soloists and corps de ballet; and elsewhere Black and Brown dancers have been making their mark, as Ballet Black, now entering its third decade, shows.

Black choreographers, too, are becoming increasingly visible on ROH stages: the American Kyle Abraham, for example, has recently had two pieces commissioned, and the British dance maker Joseph Toonga led the company’s Black History Month celebrations in 2023, as well as choreographing pieces for both the Linbury and the main stage.

So to build on all that, Sissens and O'Hare are inviting Black and Brown dancers and choreographers from around the world to join them in an event designed to champion and celebrate Black and Brown ballet artists. The event is called Legacy and is part of this year's Black History Month celebrations.